Sharon K. Weiner is a senior resident fellow in the International Peace and Security program. While serving in this role, Weiner will take a leave of absence from her position as an associate professor at American University’s School of International Service. At American University, her teaching, research, and policy engagement are at the intersection of organizational politics and U.S. national security. Her work also focuses on civil-military relations and nuclear weapons programs and nonproliferation.
Previously, Weiner served as a program examiner with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, where she was responsible for budget and policy issues related to nuclear weapons and nonproliferation. She has worked for the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and has held research positions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security.
Weiner is the author of Our Own Worst Enemy? Institutional Interests and the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Expertise (MIT Press, 2011), which explores the role of organizational and partisan politics in the successes and failures of U.S. cooperative nonproliferation programs after the fall of the Soviet Union. Her scholarly work has appeared in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Polity, Nonproliferation Review, Daedalus, Contemporary Security Policy, and other journals. She has recently finished a book on U.S. civil-military relations and the organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Currently, her work includes using virtual reality to better understand decision-making during a nuclear crisis — a project that has attracted the attention of both policymakers and the media.
Weiner holds a PhD in political science from MIT’s Security Studies Program. Her awards include an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2018) as well as a Scholar of Vision Award from the Corporation (2002–2003).
